1. Technical Field
This invention relates to firearms in general, and in particular, to modular fore-end grips, or “forends,” for firearms that are contoured as an accessory-mounting handgrip and useful for gripping and aiming the firearm.
2. Related Art
Long guns, such as rifles and shotguns, typically include two gunstock portions, viz., a buttstock or shoulder stock portion, located at the rear end of the gun, which the shooter grasps with one hand and places against a shoulder during the aiming and firing of the gun, and a forend portion, which is typically located below the barrel of the gun and ahead of its receiver, which the shooter grasps with the other hand and uses to support the barrel and to traverse it in azimuth and elevation, i.e., to aim the gun. In some guns, the shoulder stock and forend of long guns are merged into a single continuous piece, and in others, the forend comprises a separate piece that, in some embodiments, e.g., such as pump-action shotguns and rifles, is slid rearward and then forward on the gun to extract spent shells from the gun and to chamber fresh ones in it. Handguns, such as pistols, typically do not incorporate a forend, but do include one or more handgrips located at a rear portion of the gun on either side of or surrounding a downwardly protruding butt or magazine portion thereof.
Accordingly, over time, the market has seen offerings of a number of accessory-mounting forends for both handguns and long guns. For example, firearm forends incorporating light beam aim-assisting devices for both handguns and long guns are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,777,754 and 4,856,218, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Some prior art forends are not without some drawbacks. For example, they are typically configured for and can be used only on a specific model of firearm. Thus, if a user wishes to obtain the same functionality provided by the forend on a different model of firearm, he or she must purchase another complete forend that is specifically configured for use on that model.
Another drawback of some prior art forends relates to their chirality, i.e., they are typically configured for use, particularly their actuating switches, by either a right-handed shooter or a left-handed shooter, but not both, i.e., they lack ambidexterity. Another drawback is that some prior art forends are typically relatively monolithic in construction, with the result that access to the accessory portion of the forend, e.g., for battery replacement or wiring replacement or repair can be difficult.